local music

On Thursday, July 30th, evening from 5pm-9pm was the Crocker Art Museums Museum held their 3rd annual Teen Takeover Art and Music Festival. Located in downtown Sacramento, the museum hosted well over 100 local residents with ages ranging from toddlers to seniors.

All ages were attracted to this event because of due to its variety of activities and programs. Tee-shirt creation, silent disco, photo booths, hula hooping, and an open mic were just a few of the activities offered. The music being the main event featured acts from all genres. Some of the acts included were the Brazilian Center of Sacramento Drummers, The Love Defenders, Issa, and Dog Party. When asked about their experience here’s what a few of the artist had to say.

“It’s fun having a lot of kids around, a lot of people my age to connect with,” said Said local rapper Issa. “This is my second time coming and it was way better.”
“This is our first time (performing at the Crocker),” said one of the members of the band Dog Party. “Like yeah we would come back.”
“This is my first time volunteering here,” said Maddie, host of the open mic and outdoor concert. “I would definitely do it again! Like I love the Crocker art museum. I’ve been coming here for years. I think the people that come here are great, I think the people who run the events are great!”
Whether taking goofy photos in one of the two booths offered or dancing to your own beat in the silent disco, it is safe to say the Crocker Art Museum’s art museums 3rd annual Teen Takeover Art and Musical Festival was a success.

Sacramento rap artists Kahlil Redick, Breon Thuston-Hill, and Matty Matt all got together on Friday, February 14th to record a song for an upcoming mixtape. The vibe was right as each artist stepped into the recording booth and rapped their verses on the song.

“I’ve only been in here a few nights, and I can already hear the improvement in the quality of my music”, Kahlil says. “Sol has set the roots for Sacramento’s upcoming artists, I would still be at the house if it wasn’t for this place”

Eric Tagg uses Logic Pro to engineer his client’s music. It’s a recording program made specifically for Mac products. He looks at the recordings like a musical puzzle, putting the right pieces together to build a song. Tagg took a class in an Los Angeles music production school to learn the program mechanics.

“We’re serious about our work in here”, says Tagg. “I only do sessions with people that can show me that they’re passionate about their music.”

Local rap artists Breon Hill and Matthew Williams

Tagg believes that being connected to someone on a personal level amplifies the quality of the music. He takes on the responsibility of showing the Sacramento youth the proper way to record and present their work.

Creativity is abundant in the recording studio. Tribal paintings and bright red sound dampening foam coat the walls of the room. Its ambiance sparks the intuition within the artists that record there.

Space at Sol Collective is available to the community for event use. Click here to access the Sol Collective Facebook page. Interest parties can email Anand, the Sol Collective music production coordinator, at Anand@solcollective.org for more information.

A bird is the perfect symbol for ‘The Refuge’, since it has been known to represent peace and safety.

At 7 pm on Friday the 7th, St. John’s Lutheran Church in downtown was transformed into an impressive sight. ‘The Refuge’ opened its doors to those interested in seeing live music entertainment. A little different than your average concert, performances at The Refuge give all guests an opportunity to get up close and personal with some of Sacramento’s amazing musicians.

Located on 1723 L Street, The Refuge is an all-age music venue that prides itself on maintaining a safe, wholesome environment. Friendly volunteers man the snack bar and help out with just about everything else. With a strict no alcohol and no drug policy, the Refuge is a good place for Sacramento’s youth to go for entertainment.

“I started going to The Refuge about four years ago,” said Justin Chambers, a behind-the-scenes volunteer at The Refuge who has also performed with the band ‘Black and White’. “I remember hearing the band ‘The Prestige’ play for the first time and it was simply amazing. The Refuge is an amazing place where a lot of bands have gotten their start.”

Friday’s event included the musical talents of four different bands; Old Screen Door, The Hungry, Crow Canyon, and Four Days Out. The performances of the night were an interesting blend of both rock and alternative. In fact, in its time, The Refuge has introduced Sacramento citizens to anything from the indie singers Autumn Sky and Ricky Berger, to The General’s rock band. The blend of music that the venue brings is impressive and worth checking out if you’re at all interested in music.

If you would like to know more about The Refuge and keep posted on future concerts, you can visit their Facebook page here.

It’s the time of the year again when canned food drives get into high gear. Recently, The Conscious of Self and the Love Renaissance Project took a different approach to giving back by holding a canned food drive concert. Conscious of Self is a campus organization at Sacramento State University that promotes student advocacy on campus. The Love Renaissance Project is a collective of local artists, photographers,musicians, writers, and entertainers. All of the performers were local, many of them are students at Sacramento State and part of one of the two organizations.
“I chose to perform at this event because it was for a good cause.” says Steffen Hudson, a performer who goes by the stage name Edi Futur.

Steffen Hudson, Sacramento City College student, rapper

The event started off rocky, with many technical setbacks. That didn’t stop people from coming. Some arrived with backpacks full of cans, others only had one or two. Those who didn’t have any cans donated money so that cans could be purchased for them. It was a small and intimate performance with about fifty people in attendance.

Each performer improvised and performed a cappella. They converted their songs into spoken word pieces and even made beats by beating on the table. “We got up there and walked around that room, passing the spoken word around through all of us, it was pure energy. said Nate Tate, a performer who goes by the stage name Young Natho. “We didn’t have music to back us up. We made music. We beat on the stage, the walls, a table. We were music.”

“At the end of the day, it wasn’t about the music. It was for a larger purpose. Giving back was the goal.” said Jamie Garcia, an audience member and a Sacramento State student.

In total, 400 cans were collected and delivered to Loaves and Fishes the following Tuesday afternoon. There were no specific goals of how many cans event organizers wanted to collect but they were satisfied with the number collected. They are even hoping to put on another benefit concert in April with a larger turnout and more cans.

Steffen Hudson, Sacramento City College student, rapper

All 400 cans ready to be taken to Loaves and Fishes, taken by Nate Tate

Student based organizations, The Love Renaissance Project and the Conscious of Self, are joining together to help the community this holiday season. They will be holding a canned food concert on Friday, November 16th at 6:00pm in the Rosewood Room of Sacramento State University’s Student Union.

The concert will consist of a wide variety of locally based artists including Century Got Bars, Young Natho, Jasmine Nichol, Edi Futur,Reela, Vence Lewis and many others.

Admission is just one can but five cans will allow you to be placed into the raffle for a Conscious of Self shirt or a bracelet from Beads Over Cuffs. All canned food items will be directly donated to Loaves and Fishes the next day.

“There’s no background agenda, there’s no sob story. People are hungry. We know that feeling and since we’re in a position to at least try to help, then we ought to give our best try.” says Nate Tate, a member of both organizations and a performer in the show.

Donations of canned food, daily household items such as soap, feminine products, toothpaste, etc, and money can also be donated. All donations will be taken to Loaves and Fishes as well. Volunteers are needed for the event and to help package and take all donations to Loaves and Fishes on Saturday November 17th.

Are you looking for music, art and food? Are you a look for a place to advertise? If so,this Labor Day Weekend September 1st, 2nd and 3rd you can do that and more at an Annual Festival called Chalk It Up.

This festival will feature 30 musical acts, sidewalk chalk art, arts and crafts, vendors and plenty of food trucks. Chalk It Up is a nonprofit organization created to benefit children’s arts education and art activities. Its funds are raised through an annual chalk art festival that has been held each Labor Day Weekend since 1991. This year the festivities will be held at Freemont Park located on 16th and Q St.

As for advertisements, a number of squares on the perimeter of the park are sponsored by local businesses and organizations. Artists volunteer to create chalk drawings for their sponsors. The basic sponsorship fee is $150 for a single sidewalk square, $250 for a double square. Higher levels of sponsorship with great promotional benefits are available. There are also Personal Squares that cost $10.00 and come with supplies to get your art work started, Community Squares which are free and of course, open to the public and lastly “Born in Sacramento”. This area is reserved for native Sacraments of all ages to make their marks. So if you’re interested in attending this event or reserving your organization a square check out the links bellow. Remember this an all day all Labor Day Weekend festival.

I am going to fail miserably to describe the sound of G. Green, but I will try anyway because you should check them out, they are a hidden gem of the Sacramento music scene. I think of their sound as a splatter of crunching, fuzzy guitars, screechy vocals (but not annoying). Andrew Henderson does it just right, simple drums with a groovy beat, and a bouncy bass moves the songs along. Their music makes me want to thrash about and eat pizza!

Photo by: Derek Kouyoumjian

How to describe them live, well I once called this band “messy rock” because of the way they tore into their songs while playing a show. They are not a polished sounding band, which gives them so much character. Their songs are catchy, and the song writing is creative. When you listen to their recordings you don’t get that feeling of a band trying hard to sound a certain way, it has a natural feel to it, nothing feels forced. This is an absolutely refreshing escape from the conservative humdrum feel of this town that I so often feel sucked into.

And they are a happy looking band too. I remember watching the bassist and one of the guitarist cheesing throughout their whole set. It’s a good feeling when you know that a band is not taking themselves way too seriously and just having fun playing music.

And while they may not take themselves too seriously, they are still a hard working Sacramento band. They have set up tours heading up north several times, and most recently scored an official showcase at the South by South West festival. They’ve released several 7” records on small labels, and just put out a rad full length album called ‘Crap Culture’ (The cover of this album always makes me want to eat pizza – maybe that’s cause they put pizza as the cover, it looks super delicious).

So, like I said, I’m no good at writing band reviews, and I mostly prefer for bands to do the talking themselves, plus Andrew offered a lot of insight into the band which I didn’t want to have to cut short or edit! I also suggest downloading ‘Crap Culture’ and listening to it as you read Andrew’s responses below. Two tracks I highly recommend to start off with are ‘Your House’ and ‘Sinner now’ – they show the talent of this band, and their ability to write fun bouncy songs and switch it up to sound serious. Pay close attention to the guitars in ‘Sinner now’ and at the 1:35 mark you will hear a guitar riff that I love, it colors the song just right. It’s like as if you were painting and you add a color that makes the painting pop! While listening to this song I always have a moment of “Damn, I wish I could come up with a riff like that!” There are plenty of other moments like that on ‘Crap Culture’, so listen to this goodness!

AH: I guess I didn’t really. It’s just letters put in a sequence. It was originally Green Green but that’s an anime so I shortened it.

• How long has G. Green been playing around Sacramento?

AH: I started playing shows in Sacramento as G. Green in July 2008. The first couple shows I had Rick Ele playing drums, Julian Elorduy played bass at one show. After those initial performances I played solo, usually with just an acoustic guitar but a couple times with electronics and once with a kick drum and an electric guitar. In August 2009 I formed a full four piece band and there’s been a bunch of different people playing off and on. Liz Liles has been the only drummer since then though.

• I know that you have gone through a few band members, how did the current line-up come to be?

AH: For this line-up I thought for awhile about people who I’d like to play music with. I wanted to find a guitarist and bassist that would be in it to win it, I guess, so I made sure they knew what they were in for. I’ve know Simi Sohota for awhile through KDVS and playing shows/sharing bills with his bands in Sac and Davis. Mike Morales I met through mutual friends. They both said yeah and it’d been great.

• I have read your music described as being garage punk, indie lo-fi pop, dark lo-fi indie rock/pop, and sloppy DIY punk – How would you describe the bands style of music style:

AH: Always the hardest. There’s not really a focus as far as songwriting goes. I write some music and it comes together in the band without much discussion on what genre we’re going for or whatever. But I can’t deny the influence of things I listen to it which is mostly punk rock or stuff derived from that. I like catchy music. But I also like more brooding knuckle dragging scuzz stuff. Basically I just want to be as honest as possible when putting a song out there. Never underestimate the power of a hook.

• Who are your influences/favorite bands?

AH: I could go on forever but I’ll try to keep it to just a few/what I’m most into lately

-80’s/90’s stuff from New Zealand. Flying Nun, Xpressway. I like how those labels weren’t afraid to have noisier bands like the Gordons and the Dead C on their rosters right next to more precious bands like the Chills and Verlaines.

-Lots of great stuff from Columbus, OH: Jim Shepard and his band V-3, Ron House and his bands Great Plains, Thomas Jefferson Slave Apartments and Psandwich. Mike Rep, Nudge Squidfish.

-THE FALL

-As far as current music goes I am most psyched on stuff coming out of Australia. Deaf Wish, Royal Headache, Mad Nanna. Those three bands are so different, too. I like variety in my listening.

• Do you have a main song writer?

A.H.: Yeah, it’s me. Though, in this new line-up, both Simi and Mike have written songs that we now perform.

• What comes first when writing a song, the words or the music (How does a song come about)?

A.H.: Music, always. I don’t know how to write a song any other way. I just play till I find a progression I like then make some more parts. Then I fit it together once I get a vocal melody.

• I know that you work often with Rick Ele – how did you guys meet and start working with him, and how has he helped you gain exposure?

A.H.: I met Rick first on a message board. When I moved to Folsom, CA from Orem, UT I put up a thread asking where the shows were at. He wrote a 5 paragraph essay on the state of local music in Sacramento. I started going to shows in Midtown while writing and recording songs in my bedroom at my parent’s house. I’d always send him cd-r’s and he’d add them to the library at KDVS and people seemed to like them! So he started putting me on shows. He’s helped in so many ways! Without him I wouldn’t be playing music here, most likely. We wouldn’t have ever played out of town, or got records out. The dude is my hero.

• What have been some of your most memorable accomplishments as a band been?

AH: I’d say the length of time Liz and I have kept going despite people leaving the band, etc. is the biggest accomplishment. No way I would have kept going if I didn’t have a solid drummer and friend helping me though all that. It’s pretty cool we’ve done three solid tours so far. We’re pretty young but have that under our belt already.

• What are some of your future goals for the band?

A.H.: Record album #2, U.S. Tour, European tour. That’s short term though, what I want to do within the next 2 years. I try not to think to far in advance.

• What are your thoughts about the Sacramento music scene?

A.H.: I like it. I mean, I have nothing else to compare it to, but there’s so many people here that have been so supportive of me and my band for so long. I like that it’s small but there aren’t a bunch of bands doing the same thing as us. I like that I’m friends with just about everyone involved, and if I’m not yet I would like to be. For the most part everyone tries their best to help each other out. No one’s stepping on toes or competing, I guess because there isn’t really anything to compete for!

• How do you feel you are received in the Sacramento scene?

A.H.: Seems like a lot of people like us. We got a lot of offers for shows, too many really. Makes me feel like we’re wanted which is a good thing!

• What do you find most difficult about being in a band?

A.H.: All of it is difficult. But it pays off. I just like playing music and all the bullshit that goes along with it is manageable at least. Sometimes I’d like to just take a month off from all of it but that’s pretty difficult at this point.

• Can you offer any advice to other bands trying to book a local gig or tour?

A.H.: Email me at ahennn@gmail.com and I will get you on a show. There are not enough bands!!! If you’re trying to tour just ask everyone you know who has toured for contacts in the cities you’re trying to play. Hit up bands you like in the towns you’re going thru, or better yet, help a band get a show here and I guarantee they will help you out in their own town.

• UPCOMING SHOWS AND RELEASES!!

A.H.: Our next shows:

May 11th at Davis Bike Collective (In Davis) with Uzi Rash & Charles Albright
May 25th in Sacramento at Luigi’s Fungarden with David Leibe Hart and TBA
June 9th in Sacramento at a Secret Place with Screature, Nu Sensae and Stalins of Sound

She’s a name you’ve likely heard, if not read about in alt papers like The Sacramento News & Review. If you’ve seen her in person, she is unmistakable. Imagine you walk into a show and see a tall, curvy woman with a guitar, belting out heartbreak and songs about rising from the ashes of the naive girl who got mixed up. One doesn’t forget this gal. This is Carly DuHain, a longtime staple of the singer-songwriter community here in Sacramento as a solo artist and as backing vocalist for Be Brave Bold Robot. After a handful of glowing reviews last year, even taking the spotlight off of Robot’s frontman Dean Haakenson in a piece about that band, Carly has decided to bring some back up to her shows. The Carly DuHain Band is exactly what it should be. Carly’s heart-wrenching songs with a full backing band that compliments without overshadowing. With brother-and-sister team Richard and Jessica Williams on Bass/trumpet and keys respectively, and Former Robot drummer Tony Ledesma’s metronome rhythm, the songs spring to life on their own in fresh ways.

“The band formed up in May,” explains Carly, “Until then it was just me. The reason I wanted to do this was to beef up the sound. I mean, I like the folk genre and I like Americana, but I wanted to sound more bad ass.” The timing was right to add more people. It seemed to be a natural progression to her. “I really like the dynamic of 4. It works really well for our sound because it’s not this crazy solo driven stuff, it’s really lyrically driven and I like a more cohesive, melodic backing.”

The highly personally inspired lyrical content is a product of Carly’s generation. Growing up as a teen in the 90’s, the musical landscape was populated by an intensely self-reflective style of songwriting. Her musical vocabulary is based on the old hits that once played on the local alternative radio station, KWOD 106.5 and the like here over a decade ago.

“90’s rock is where i fell in love. I loved music before that. I’d listen to Bette Midler, Carly Simon, all the old Beatles stuff. My parents were big George Harrison fans. James Taylor really got me thinking. I never really found that musical niche that I wanted until the 90’s when I heard Pearl Jam and Elbow… Everyone’s gonna hate me, but I love Third Eye Blind.” Closet bands aside, you can’t knock the musical philosophies behind the music. It’s clear that, though she doesn’t write derivative songs, the proximity of Carly to the voices in her songs comes from a musical lineage that can be traced back clearly in her head. “The emotions get kicked up and it’s music with a sense of urgency and a story to tell with those emotions. That’s kinda how I got started.” Every song is clearly a sketch of her own feelings. “Every single one. I wish there were more happy ones, but they’re nowhere near as good as that guttural, from the heart, honest-to-god heartbreak. Everybody can hang with that.” Though the women in her songs have been hurt and broken, there is a strength behind that hurt. A nod to the horizon that, though she’s been kicked down, she will move on and be better. “Though I’ll probably get kicked in the head again. Keep touching that hot stove, one day it’ll be cool.”

With recording sessions in the pipeline, The Carly DuHain Band has a big year coming. “Justin Ferren wants to put his hands in it. Brian Rogers… I’ll be damned if I’m gonna turn that down.”

The Carly DuHain Band is playing with Be Brave Bold Robot, Blisses B and Nice Monster Saturday, Jan 14th at The Blue Lamp. 9pm $7 cover.